I imagine McCain was more appealing than Bush to the Scotch-Irish populist vote.
Then why were so many of these Scotch-Irish populists still willing to vote for John Forbes Kerry in 04, but not willing to vote for Obama even while the rest of the country moved several points Democratic?
purple hearts > blue blood.
If you recall from the 04 campaign, many conservative voters--even registered Democrats--considered Forbes a rich playboy and doubted his claims of military heroism.
How does Obama come across as a "blue blood"? 
I understand the "eastern liberal elite" argument, but that was every bit as applicable (and applied by Republicans) to Kerry.
'blue blood' was really meant for Bush. there was a cultural distaste for Kerry's 'eastern liberal elite' too but it was in part mitigated by his military service for many traditionally Democrat voters. really though I'm making more of a distinction between McCain and Bush for people who had been voting Democratic for a long time but admired McCain's military service and saw his style as Jacksonian / conservative Democrat. I don't know that it was a huge factor, but I think there's something to it.
It's interesting to note that on a statewide level, of those states with a Republican swing, only AR had a larger swing in 2008 then in 2004.
